Not only did the merger happen, Helio just laid off half their employees on the day of the merger announcement. Another 30% of them will feel the axe within the next 30 days. Nice way to start off a merger, shades of Cingular / AT&T;.

Not only did the merger happened, Helio just laid off half their employees on the day of the merger announcement. Another 30% of them will feel the axe within the next 30 days. Nice way to start off a merger, shades of Cingular / AT&T;.

if helio is going to merge or be bought, what are the customers going to do. will they be able to keep their phones with virgin or just wake up one day without their phone working. and i have helio and when i first sighed up i had to say 150 bucks and was told at the end of my contract i would get that back. will i?

Iâ€™ve always admired Helio for their no-nonsense approach to marketing. In fact, when they launched in October 2005, Helio and Sky Dayton promised to â€œEnd Confusing Rate Plans and Cheap Gimmicks.â€ Apparently something went terribly wrong because they are advertising their "Ocean" handset for $99. It is not $99 and if you read my blog post, you will see exactly what I mean.

Whatever you say or promise in your advertisement or email campaign, you better be able to deliverâ€“without making someone jump through hoops. When it comes to marketing, follow the golden rule â€œDo unto others, as you would have others do unto you.â€ Honesty is always the best policy in business and in life. The most successful companies and entrepreneurs I know are also the most honest and sincere people Iâ€™ve ever met.

After this experience I looked into the state of affairs at Helio and discovered theyâ€™ve already burned through $560M. Their balance sheet is a train wreck with cash dwindling and a loss at Helio of over $326 million last year alone. To make matters worse, Sky Dayton quit and left Helio a bill for over $600,000 in back pay and severance. A sad ending for a company that launched with such star-studded fanfare and a promise to change the wireless industry.

If Helio canâ€™t be honest, they should just not advertise! They will avoid pissing people off with cheap gimmick emails. Better still, by not advertisingâ€“they can save lots of money. Thatâ€™s money that can be used as decent severance packages for Helio employees when they go bankrupt.